Corinthian-Casuals 0 - 3 Bowers & Pitsea
Isthmian League Premier Division
Saturday 12th February 2022
Report: Stuart Tree. Photos: Andy Nunn. (Full set here)
Corinthian-Casuals put in their most insipid performance this season as they were convincingly beaten by Bowers and Pitsea at the United Business Group Stadium on Saturday.
A Lewis Manor brace along with a Michael Ademiluyi strike was enough to give the Essex side three vital points on the road as they look to pull away from the drop zone.
Casuals were without a number of players including Emmanuel Mensah who was still suffering from a dead leg in midweek. Nordibek Bobomurodov returned to make his first start for the club as they looked to get back to winning ways following a lack of three points in recent games – albeit against top of the table opposition.
But they got off to the worst start as Bowers took the lead on just six minutes. Manor was on hand to tuck away a Jamie Dicks free kick leaving Casuals defenders scratching their heads.
Corinth never got their engine started, let alone out of first gear as Bowers could’ve – and should’ve been out of sight before half time. Two gilt-edged chances fell to Manor who somehow didn’t add to his early strike. The hosts were also dealt another defensive blow as Jerry Nnamani had to come off thanks to a hamstring pull.
But Casuals weren’t to get away with it as Michael Ademiluyi pounced at the far post from a long throw just before the break to leave Bracken’s side an uphill task.
The home side clearly had a rocket put up their backsides by Bracken as they started much brighter, but a third for Bowers on the break, with Manor tapping in from close range was enough to seal victory. Casuals never truly got going and never really troubled Beaney in the Bowers goal.
"As a game of football, that’s the worst I’ve seen all season," said James Bracken after the match. "Credit to Bowers though for coming and doing what they’ve done to us as it worked for them. We’ve shot ourselves in the foot. The goals that we’ve conceded are terrible. To let players have tap ins from four yards unmarked is criminal.
"Lewis Manor has bagged two and we all know what he’s capable of. We prepared for what to expect and to anticipate him winning first balls because he’s very good at that. A player of that ilk is as good as a Cunnington in terms of being a target man. But we’ve switched off too many times.
"I thought we were better in the second half but they’ve scored against the run of play. We had plenty of the ball but we did nothing with it. Our only real good chance in the match came in the 93rd minute. We weren’t good enough. The overall level was not up to the standard I expect.
"Sometimes you get sucked into a game of football that suits one side and their style. I think that’s what has happened against Bowers. I don’t want to be seen as making excuses but the wind and the pitch was better suited for them than it was us. But we needed to do better on the day to combat that.
"We went out there with one or two knocks and a few missing. We have six games in less than two weeks coming up which is shocking. Even for a fully fit squad, that’s a tough ask.
"The bottom line is we’ve conceded three against Bowers, three against Bishops Stortford, three against Margate, three against Bognor and five against Cheshunt before Christmas. That’s certainly not what I want to see. We’ll address that though and look to tighten up once again.
"But we must have a reality check; we shouldn’t really be in this division on our resources. But we’re sitting twelfth in the league. We’re not down the bottom fighting off relegation. We’ve played some of the better sides and got great results. It’s been an enjoyable season for the most part. But we need to dust ourselves down and go again.”
Isthmian League Premier Division
Saturday 12th February 2022
Report: Stuart Tree. Photos: Andy Nunn. (Full set here)
Corinthian-Casuals put in their most insipid performance this season as they were convincingly beaten by Bowers and Pitsea at the United Business Group Stadium on Saturday.
A Lewis Manor brace along with a Michael Ademiluyi strike was enough to give the Essex side three vital points on the road as they look to pull away from the drop zone.
Casuals were without a number of players including Emmanuel Mensah who was still suffering from a dead leg in midweek. Nordibek Bobomurodov returned to make his first start for the club as they looked to get back to winning ways following a lack of three points in recent games – albeit against top of the table opposition.
But they got off to the worst start as Bowers took the lead on just six minutes. Manor was on hand to tuck away a Jamie Dicks free kick leaving Casuals defenders scratching their heads.
Corinth never got their engine started, let alone out of first gear as Bowers could’ve – and should’ve been out of sight before half time. Two gilt-edged chances fell to Manor who somehow didn’t add to his early strike. The hosts were also dealt another defensive blow as Jerry Nnamani had to come off thanks to a hamstring pull.
But Casuals weren’t to get away with it as Michael Ademiluyi pounced at the far post from a long throw just before the break to leave Bracken’s side an uphill task.
The home side clearly had a rocket put up their backsides by Bracken as they started much brighter, but a third for Bowers on the break, with Manor tapping in from close range was enough to seal victory. Casuals never truly got going and never really troubled Beaney in the Bowers goal.
"As a game of football, that’s the worst I’ve seen all season," said James Bracken after the match. "Credit to Bowers though for coming and doing what they’ve done to us as it worked for them. We’ve shot ourselves in the foot. The goals that we’ve conceded are terrible. To let players have tap ins from four yards unmarked is criminal.
"Lewis Manor has bagged two and we all know what he’s capable of. We prepared for what to expect and to anticipate him winning first balls because he’s very good at that. A player of that ilk is as good as a Cunnington in terms of being a target man. But we’ve switched off too many times.
"I thought we were better in the second half but they’ve scored against the run of play. We had plenty of the ball but we did nothing with it. Our only real good chance in the match came in the 93rd minute. We weren’t good enough. The overall level was not up to the standard I expect.
"Sometimes you get sucked into a game of football that suits one side and their style. I think that’s what has happened against Bowers. I don’t want to be seen as making excuses but the wind and the pitch was better suited for them than it was us. But we needed to do better on the day to combat that.
"We went out there with one or two knocks and a few missing. We have six games in less than two weeks coming up which is shocking. Even for a fully fit squad, that’s a tough ask.
"The bottom line is we’ve conceded three against Bowers, three against Bishops Stortford, three against Margate, three against Bognor and five against Cheshunt before Christmas. That’s certainly not what I want to see. We’ll address that though and look to tighten up once again.
"But we must have a reality check; we shouldn’t really be in this division on our resources. But we’re sitting twelfth in the league. We’re not down the bottom fighting off relegation. We’ve played some of the better sides and got great results. It’s been an enjoyable season for the most part. But we need to dust ourselves down and go again.”
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